A Praise to Three Dzogchen Gurus

Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)

In the middle of the lotus source of alpha purity and innate presence,

the luminous display of blissful empty awareness plays effortlessly

and the whirl of rapture of the ḍākinīs’ lord of dance shines forth

The activity of the guru beyond space, time, and mind is precious!

Namka Ösal (First Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche)

In the primordially pure sky of expanse and awareness,

luminosity free of directions pervades the five wisdoms

Wisdom’s own light keeps radiating all kinds of bindus

The playful dance of rainbow bodies benefits all beings

Sungrab Ngedön Tenpé Gyaltsen (Seventh Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche)

Bestowing nothing but the definitive meaning of the Dzogchen discourses,

holding the victory banner of the vajra of the completely perfect teachings,

giving the perfect directionless instructions in the gap between east and west,

oh Dzogchen guru, please keep pointing this out in an inexhaustible manner!

རྫོགས་ཆེན་བླ་མ་གསུམ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ །།

ཀ་དག་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་པད་མ་བྱུང་གནས་དབུས །།

བདེ་སྟོང་རིག་པའི་གསལ་རྩལ་འབད་མེད་རོལ །།

མཁའ་འགྲོའི་གར་དབང་དགའ་འཁྱིལ་སྣང་ །

གུ་རུ་ཡུལ་དུས་བློ་འདས་ཕྲིན་ལས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ །།

དབྱིངས་རིག་ནམ་མཁའ་ཡེ་ནས་དག་པ་ལ །།

ཕྱོགས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་ལ་ཁྱབ །།

ཡེ་ཤེས་རང་འོད་ཐིག་ལེ་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྤྲོས །།

འཇའ་ལུས་རོལ་གར་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་ཕན །།

རྫོགས་ཆེན་གསུང་རབ་ངེས་དོན་ཁོ་ན་སྟེར །།

བསྟན་པ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་འཆང་ །

ཤར་ནུབ་མཚམས་ལ་ཕྱོགས་མེད་གདམས་རྫོགས་སྟོན །།

རྫོགས་ཆེན་བླ་མས་རྫོགས་མེད་ངོ་སྤྲོད་གསོལ །།

This originated in a mind sleepless in Seattle, July 25, 2020.

A Song of Ground, Path, and Fruition in Terms of Being Clear and Aware

The entire variety of mental states that are clear and aware—

deluded appearances of the triad of perceiver, perceived, and awareness—is one

The three kinds of prajñās, in their being clear and aware,

are the undeluded essence of the stages of paths and bhūmis

The natural state of mind as such that is clear and aware

is the fundamental ground beyond delusion and non-delusion

The clear and aware nondual expanse free from thoughts

is the supreme, wide-open field of being clear and aware

From it, the rain of compassion’s flowers keeps pouring—amazing!

གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་གླུ །།

གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་བློ་སྣ་ཚོགས །།

གཟུང་འཛིན་རིག་གསུམ་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་གཅིག །

གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་ཤེས་རབ་གསུམ །།

ས་ལམ་རིམ་པའི་མ་འཁྲུལ་ངོ་ །།

གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་སེམས་ཉིད་ངང་ །།

འཁྲུལ་དང་མ་འཁྲུལ་ལས་འདས་གཤིས །།

གསལ་རིག་གཉིས་མེད་རྟོག་བྲལ་དབྱིངས །།

གསལ་རིག་ཞིང་མཆོག་ཟང་ཐལ་ལས །།

སྙིང་རྗེའི་མེ་ཏོག་འཆར་འབབ་མཚར །།

Buddhapāda, Kalimpong, March 8, 2024.

A Letter From Stainless Expanse and Awareness

A Casual Summary of Maitreya’s Uttaratantra

Unconditioned, effortless, and not to be realized through something other,

omniscience, love, and power are a buddha’s perfection of the two benefits

This is the ultimate refuge that is completely without granting and taking—

don’t look for anything other than your own mind’s present luminous expanse!

Being inconceivable, free from the dual, and without any thoughts,

purity, clarity, and remedy—the two realities of cessation and path

True dharma of scriptures and realization, vastness free of being and nonbeing—

the dharmakāya’s self-radiance is displayed as what’s to be practiced and realized

Suchness, extent, and vision of inner primordial awareness,

free from any attachment, unimpeded, and unsurpassable—

these constitute the qualities of awareness and liberation

The awareness that the basic way of being of our own mind

serves as the remedy for the entirety of dualistic appearances

is the saṃgha’s freedom, the oneness of how things appear and truly are

Three reasons, a tenfold presentation, and nine examples show the disposition—

those who have confidence in that will come to recognize their own face

Our buddha heart empty of what is adventitious, yet not empty of qualities

is nothing but the ultimate definitive meaning, so that we let go of the five flaws

Endowed with twofold purity, the cause of awareness in equipoise and thereafter,

the result free from the two obscurations, the two benefits, possessing the qualities,

three kāyas, permanence as long as space and beings exist, and inconceivability—

ground, path, and result are nowhere to be seen, and awakening is right here

Ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and unique qualities are freedom’s qualities,

and the major marks and minor characteristics are the qualities of maturation

They are not conditioned, previously nonexistent, or attained through effort

but are the primordial qualities of our own mind, similar to fire and its heat

Completely effortless and uninterrupted enlightened activity is a great marvel:

nine examples illustrate the accomplishment of thought-free spontaneous deeds

Even in the expanse without remainder beings’ welfare is always displayed in an all-encompassing way—

only those who lack confidence in their own heart have doubts about this!

The benefit is that bodhisattvas become the vessels of the qualities of buddhas

Even mere faith in this is superior to any accumulations of generosity and such

To take the definitive heart of the matter as something that is merely expedient

comes down to nothing but the negative karma of rejecting the genuine dharma,

but even that is freed on the spot in the vastness of our own heart’s awareness revealed

Kamalashila Institut, Wachendorf, May 1994